Brooklyn Nets: 2019 NBA Draft grades

No. 56 pick: Jaylen Hands

If you’re going to draft a guard, UCLA is usually a good school to pull from. Russell Westbrook, Jrue Holiday, Zach LaVine and Darren Collison are all former Bruins.

Jaylen Hands is definitely not on any of the aforementioned players’ level as a prospect, but is solid value pick on the end of the draft for Sean Marks and company.

The 6’3″ sophomore passes the eye test with great finishing ability, elite speed in the open court and a good-looking shooting stroke. In fact, he shot 39.2 percent from deep during conference play last year.

Hands was a bit of a tweener entering 2018-19, but he took on more lead guard duties this past year and responded by pacing the Pac-12 with 6.1 assists per game.

However, his assist-to-turnover ratio was just 1.9 and despite his top-flight burst and athleticism, Hands can be sloppy with the ball. His poor basketball IQ is what kept him from being a higher selection.

It’s normally not a great sign for point guard to struggle with feel for the game, but Hands will still be 20 years old when next season starts and has time to figure it out. Plus, you can’t teach this kind of explosiveness.

This late in the draft, you want to take a swing on a player with high upside and the Nets did just that by selecting Jaylen Hands. Depending on what happens with D’Angelo Russell and Kyrie Irving in free agency, Hands may start his career in the G League, but could become their long term backup.

Grade: B